July 22, 2013

THE DARK DESIGN

I'm really enjoying my time on Riverworld.
Philip José Farmer's truly bonkers series of novels detailing a very strange
afterlife are so conceptually unique and inventive that one can't help but be
swept along by the author's audacious imagination. Those who have read my
reviews of the first two books in the series (“To Your Scattered Bodies Go” and
“The Fabulous Riverboat”) will have an idea of the fantastically weird and
wonderful set-up for those who live on Riverworld. I'm not going to cover old
ground here so if you haven't read the first two books (or at least my reviews
of them) you may as well stop reading now because what is going to follow will
most likely make no sense whatsoever.

“The Dark Design”, first published in
1977, is a little different to the previous novels in the series. For a start,
it's a lot bigger. Rather than following just one group of characters, this
time the narrative is split between three distinct storylines. Whilst this does
lead to us feeling somewhat detached from the narrative drive that propelled
the first two novels at such a cracking pace, it does also give the novel a
broader scope that seems befitting of the conceptually enormous yarn that
Farmer is spinning. The first plotline reintroduces us to Richard Francis
Burton, the protagonist of the first novel. Burton's journey up-River to locate
the headquarters of the mysterious Ethicals is ongoing but in the decades since
the initial day of resurrection there have been some changes on Riverworld.
Firstly, death now appears to be permanent. There are no more resurrections
along the banks of the River and what was once considered an inconvenience is
now, once more, something to be feared. Secondly, Burton and his crew discover
that a number of the grailstones upon which humanity has relied for food for so
long have ceased to work. Indeed, the more Burton and his companions
investigate this strange phenomenon, the more it seems that the vast alien
technology that runs Riverworld is beginning to malfunction or break down.

If this isn't problematic enough for
Burton, he is left reeling by the discovery that two of his crew, Peter Jairus
Frigate and the alien Monat, are perhaps not who they claim to be. This is, of
course, exceedingly confusing for both Burton and the reader and is just one of
the instances in this book where Farmer pulls the rug from beneath our feet and
leaves us feeling totally baffled as to what exactly is going on.

The second storyline only adds to our
confusion. Focusing on the real Peter
Jairus Frigate, we follow his time on the River from the early years after the
day of resurrection to his time spent in the company of author Jack London and
cinema icon Tom Mix. This Peter Jairus Frigate is yet another one of the
resurrectees contacted by the Mysterious Stranger and given instructions to
seek out the source of the River in order to unlock the secrets of the planet.

The final storyline returns us to
Parolando, the setting of the second book in the series. Samuel Clemens has
built a second giant riverboat and sets off in pursuit of the villainous King
John Lackland who stole the first. Those who remained behind in Parolando have
embarked upon another ambitious scheme – the construction of airships with
which they will aid Clemens' quest for vengeance and seek out the mysterious
tower of the Ethicals at the North Pole of the planet. The main protagonist of
this storyline is Jill Gulbirra, an aboriginal airship pilot from the twentieth
century. Jill is a fiercely independent woman and is passionate about taking on
the role of piloting one of the airships. Through her, Farmer is able to focus
on issues of race, gender and sexuality as well as providing the series with a
strong female character, something that it has been lacking up to this point.
Jill is a very well-drawn, believable personality whose own prejudices and
frailties give us a very human perspective on life on the River.

Farmer weaves the three separate plotlines
together, skipping between them in a way that never seems contrived, and always
ensuring that the readers are left with a juicy cliffhanger to keep them
guessing. As with the previous two books, the novel ends with a hugely
frustrating lack of resolution. We aren't even given a clear idea of which
characters (who we have followed for four-hundred-or-so pages) have survived
the final explosive climax. This ambiguity is par for the course on Riverworld
where confusion and uncertainty reign supreme. Saying that, it would be nice to
see some form of coherence in the overall story when you are three books into
the series.

Another change that can be seen in “The
Dark Design” from the previous novels is the different style of writing. “The
Dark Design” displays a far more sophisticated style and there are times when
Farmer's descriptions of the alien world are verging on poetry. This change
will please those who felt the first two novels were too sparse but will
probably irritate those who enjoyed the stripped-back, direct style of the
early books. Personally, I didn't mind the change but it did take a couple of
chapters to get accustomed to the more florid prose.

“The Dark Design” offers some tantalising
glimpses of what might come next in the Riverworld saga and is a far more
substantial book than previous instalments. The growing sense of dread that all
might not be well behind-the-scenes on the planet is extremely effective and we
feel the same kind of wild anxiety as we did on the day of resurrection in the
first novel. However, the continued lack of clear direction in the overall
narrative is bound to prickle those looking for some kind of explanation of the
secrets of Riverworld. What we learn about the mysterious Ethicals and their
strange tower at the North Pole only serves to rouse our curiosity still
further. Three books into the series, Philip José Farmer was clearly playing a
dangerous game with his readers who had faithfully followed him on this wild
journey. I'm sure there are many who would tire of all the unanswered questions
and uncertainty and give up on the stories at this point. I'm going to keep
going on my journey on the River... I feel like I've come so far that I have to learn what it is all about.